jellyfish stew

We saw these jellies in the Chesapeake Bay over the weekend:

I've always had kind of a love/hate/sick fascination with jellyfish. If they're in the ocean where I'm swimming, you can be sure I'll be heading for shore while screaming like a girl. I've never actually been stung (probably because I hightail it out of the water whenever I see one), but this was always my greatest fear on the beach as a child.

I don't particularly like the blobs of goo that litter the East Coast beaches either. However, I'm aware that the jellies in my part of the ocean aren't particularly potent. (I go to beaches in New Jersey and North Carolina - not Australia.) The dreaded Portuguese Man O' War rarely ventures this far north in the Atlantic. (Though it does happen - yikes!)

Unfounded fears aside, I find jellyfish to be one of the most beautiful and fascinating creatures on the planet. I've even been planning some art pieces depicting jellyfish, and seeing these guys in the Bay got me even more excited to create some jellyfish art.

Doesn't it look like it's floating in the Milky Way?

Also, I can't think about jellyfish without Jack Prelutsky's poem from The New Kid on the Block (loved that book as a kid) popping into my head:

Jellyfish Stew

Jellyfish stew,

I'm loony for you,

I dearly adore you,

Oh truly I do.

You're creepy to see,

Revolting to chew,

You slide down inside 

with a hullabaloo.

You're soggy, you're smelly,

You taste like shampoo,

You bog down my belly with oodles of goo,

Yet I would glue noodles

And prunes to my shoe,

For one oozy spoonful

of jellyfish stew.

--Jack Prelutsky